"yeah but just cause it bitten doesnt mean anything. my personal opinion is to feed live, but its your decision."
-See for yourself.



I got that from ball-pythons.net, but im not sure who to give credit for that picture too, so im just gonna say that it isn’t my picture.

That snake was alive and suffereing in that picture, and that was a mouse, not even a rat.

Oh, and a tip, if you do feed live, try offering some food to the mouse before feeding it to your snake. That way the mouse is less likely to chew and eat off of your bp if the snake takes it’s time striking it.

I myself feed frozen thawed. But I know there are breeders who have too many animals where it’d be impossible to switch them all over to frozen thawed or prekilled, and therefore it’d be easier to feed live. I suggest you contact Adam Wysocki of 8ballpythons.com and ask him his opinions on live feeding. He’s been breeding ball pythons for something like 30 years now, and feeds live 200+ times a week. 30 years of live feedings, at 200+ feedings a week, and he’s had no problems yet. So there must be something he’s doing right. According to you, and everyone else who seems to think live feeding is a death sentence, his snakes should be horribly scarred and dying from multiple rodent bites. If it was so unsafe to feed live, I’m sure he wouldn’t trust it with his bp morphs that are worth thousands...

When you drop in a live mouse, which is hungry, and your snake doesn’t have any interest in it right away or at all, the mouse will sooner or later start nibbling on the snake, using it as a food source. However, if you feed the mouse beforehand, it’ll be less likely to see the snake as a food source if the snake doesn’t strike it right away. As far as defending itself, I still say that a mouse or rat is usually too busy to bite the snake as it’s gasping for air trying to survive. If you were being crushed by this giant beast, and you couldn’t breathe, what would you be more worried about doing? Gasping for air to survive, or biting at this beast? I’d probably not have time to think, and just gasp for air.

As far as no benefit to feeding live, tell that to major breeders and see their response. They’ll most likely do what Adam Wysocki does, and invite you to come to their facility and try to switch 200+ snakes over to frozen thawed, then have them eat that consistently. Sorry, but no matter what you do, say, try, etc, some snakes will NEVER take frozen thawed or even prekilled, and therefore will have to be fed live. With breeders, they can’t afford to switch all their snakes to frozen thawed, and then feed only a select bunch live. It’s too much hassle. They’d be there for days and days trying to feed their animals. For breeders of hundreds of snakes, it’s just easier to feed live.